King Street Bike Lanes delayed 2 months

By Jonathan Krall

At the Alexandria Traffic and Parking Board meeting on Monday night the King Street Traffic Calming and Bike Lane proposal was consideration and largely dismissed, despite a strong majority of speakers being in support. The specific question under consideration was the removal of 27 usually-empty parking spaces and the addition of three parking spaces nearby. The proposed compromise plan, presented by Hillary Poole of the the Transportation and Environmental Services Department, retains 10 spaces on Kings St., in an area where only three cars are usually parked, on average.

At the public hearing 38 people spoke in favor of bike lanes and18 spoke against. Almost all who spoke for bike lanes stated both a preference for the originally-proposed full bike lanes and a willingness to support the compromise proposal from the city.

Speakers included a teacher at TC Williams High School who teaches about environmentalism, students who live and study at the Virginia Theological Seminary on Seminary Hill, two sight-impaired cyclists, one of whom organizes the Tandem Tuesdays cycling group that pairs sighted pilots with sight-impaired "stokers" to enjoy bicycling, and numerous citizens. Some citizens in the immediately-affected area spoke in favor of the proposal.

The Traffic and Parking Board received letters of support from the Environmental Policy Commission and the Parks and Recreation Commission. Like the Traffic and Parking Board, these commissions are charged with balancing citizen concerns with city initiatives, such as the Transportation Master Plan and the Eco-City Alexandria Charter. A member of the Environmental Policy Commission read their letter at the hearing.

Representatives from the Washington Area Bicyclist Association and the Coalition For Smarter Growth spoke at the hearing. These regional organizations promote citizens concerns for health, safety and livability and have many members and supporters in Alexandria.

Members of the Alexandria Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC), including myself, made an effort to compromise by backing the city's compromise proposal, as did many of the residents.

The main message of the NIMFYs (not in my front yard; one speaker characterized herself as such.) was that King Street is too dangerous for bicycling and cannot be made safe. As a result, everyone on all sides were talking safety, safety, and safety. NIMFYs also emphasized that they need to be able to have parking for services and visitors. Pro bike-lane speakers responded that they did not have parking directly in front of their homes and were somehow able to have visitors and to keep their homes in good repair. One speaker reiterated a statement from Mayor Euille, who was recently quoted in the press regarding Capital Bikeshare: “We don’t want people driving their cars and parking, we want people to be using bicycles and walking.”

The Traffic and Parking Board did the following:

• Asked very few questions.
• Commission Chair Jay Johnson asked only one question of BPAC Chair Jerry King. In that question he characterized the cyclist position, as received in letters and e-mails, as "bike lanes or nothing." In fact, no speaker in favor of bike lanes expressed this position.
• A member of the Board dismissed the over 3000 Alexandria residents who are members of WABA by grilling WABA community outreach coordinator Greg Billings on whether or not he himself was a resident of Alexandria. They rudely asked him no other questions.
• With the exception of a single board member, they spoke only about the need to protect residents and pedestrians, not cyclists.
• In the discussion preceding their vote, one member claimed that there was no common ground between residents, who want all parking retained and cyclists, most of whom prefer full bike lanes. Despite the fact that this was clearly counter-factual (the common ground is the 10 spaces retained in the compromise proposal), there was no disagreement among the board on this point.
• They were dismissive of the actual compromise proposal put forward by City staff and supported by a clear majority of bike-lane proponents. This proposal would retain 10 parking spaces on King St and add three more on neighboring streets. This was dismissed as having no "common ground" between the two sides and containing no "meat."
• The Traffic and Parking Board recommended that city staff implement all "pedestrian improvements", implement no bicycling improvements, retain all parking, and come back later with a proposal that has "common ground" and "meat."

My own take on that is that the Traffic and Parking Board, on this occasion, had no interest in hearing anything that did not reinforce their preconceived notions, but they did not actually come out an say what those notions were. Personally, I have heard quite a bit about the need to revamp the public process to better engage and listen to citizens through the “What's Next Alexandria” initiative. What we seem to have is an example of a board that will not serve any such process, no matter how cleverly designed. In this case at least, it demonstrated no interest in listening to citizens that did not agree with its preconceived views. In other words, the Traffic and Parking Board demonstrated no respect for either the citizens or the initiatives of the City Council.

On a positive note, we in the bicyclist, pedestrian, smart growth, environmental, and livability communities came together in a big way. We have not done this so strongly before in Alexandria and I do not think that members of the Traffic and Parking Board knew how to react. In the long run, these communities need to ensure that it is politically impossible to dismiss cyclists in the manner that they were dismissed by the Traffic and Parking Board on Monday night. Our well-organized voices were clear, strong, and delivered a message that will continue to resonate until we get what is needed for the city of Alexandria: bicycling, walking and transit networks that work so well that both traffic and parking become largely irrelevant.

Comments

[Jacques]

Thanks for the report, and I'm sorry to hear the frustrating news. It sounds like the TPB takes the "P" portion of their name quite seriously.

[SJE]

Perhaps the Alexandria bikers need a lawyer or other representative with experience negotiating these things, and knowing how the committees work. It should help in knowing where the committee must listen etc. If nothing works, at the very least you will create a record that can be turned against the TBP if they become unreasonable.

[ACyclistInTheSuburbs]

The board has two year terms.

Time to get more people sympathetic to biking on to the board.

[Greenbelt]

Is there a Less Traffic and No-Need-For-Parking Board?

[Catherine]

It was really disheartening that there was so much support and they weren't listening to any of us.

Also, the only reason the anti-bike lane crowd is crying safety is because they know that arguing for the convienence of front-of-the-house parking is just selfish on its face (but the funny thing is that the board would probably support them with that argument anyway).

If they actually cared for safety of cyclists they would *never* argue for sharrows on that streach. If they actually cared for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists, they would *never* argue for sidewalk cycling. Those two suggestions are the bulk of the suggestions of the anti-crowd.

They do clearly care about slowing down speed on King Street, but not at the cost of losing their parking.

And the board just plain old doesn't care or (more likely) doesn't want to be forced to make an unpopular decision.

[Kathy]

Many thanks for the report and your efforts.

[dynaryder]

A member of the Board dismissed the over 3000 Alexandria residents who are members of WABA

Sounds like WABA needs to co-ordinate an effort to have those residents contact the board members. And possibly vote/run against them.

[DE]

Elected officials don't listen to the people they represent unless they are monied shocker.

Those brave enough should just take the whole lane every single time they ride through there until there is a bike lane. That's what I do on the laneless portions of Lee Highway in Arlington I use. At least I'm not dead yet, and the speed limit is way over 25.

[Froggie]

Mentioned this on Twitter the other night, but I don't really see a good outcome out of this. If the city drops the proposal entirely, residents (save perhaps the NIMFY's) will know the city is INCAPABLE of commitment to its own policies. Meanwhile, if the city does push through and implement bike lanes on King Street, the opposed residents will claim that the city "doesn't listen to its residents". Of course, given the outpouring at the meeting, one could make the argument that it isn't listening to its residents already...

[bobco85]

This is from Alexandria's Traffic & Parking Board website: "The Traffic and Parking Board investigates, studies, and analyzes traffic and parking problems within the City. In addition to devising plans, methods and means to control and relieve parking and traffic congestion; and has jurisdiction over taxicabs and their owners/operators."

From what seems to have been discussed, I'm hearing very little about improving traffic and a lot about preserving parking. At the meeting, did the TPB mention anything about the fact that decreasing the vehicle lane width would slow traffic which was found on that stretch to be an average of 10 mph over the limit?

[cyclistinthecity]

@bobco85

'At the meeting, did the TPB mention anything about the fact that decreasing the vehicle lane width would slow traffic which was found on that stretch to be an average of 10 mph over the limit?'

That point was stated and reiterated numerous times throughout the meeting by people speaking for the bike lanes.

[Jonathan Krall]

@bobco85

The Traffic and Parking Board was totally dismissive of the City proposal, but they did not specifically speak to the value of the lane narrowing. The really did not comment on much of anything because they seemed not to be particularly interested.

[Jonathan Krall]

That meeting or the Traffic and Parking Board was a disgrace. At a time when Alexandria is working to re-energize the public process through the What's Next Alexandria initiative, we need our citizen boards to be relevant, responsive to citizens, and responsive to the City Council. The current Traffic and Parking board is none of these.

The City Council has a vision of a transit-oriented Alexandria that will move the city forward. The mission of the TPB, to study "traffic and parking problems," is no longer important to the many residents who are living car-free or "car lite." We instead need to give voice to broad citizen concerns regarding Transportation and Safety. What we need is a Transportation and Safety Board.

Mayor Euille, who was recently quoted in the press regarding Capital Bikeshare, said it best: “We don’t want people driving their cars and parking, we want people to be using bicycles and walking.”

Write to Mayor Euille and to City Council here: http://request.alexandriava.gov/CCC/#tab=Departments&group=MayorandCityCouncil&service=CNC_GROUP

[Allen Muchnick]

I seriously doubt that WABA has as many as 3,000 current members in all of Northern Virginia, much less within the City of Alexandria. Such clearly exaggerated claims diminish ones credibility.

[ACyclistInTheSuburbs]

One thing that might be beneficial to all the jurisdictional advocacy groups in NoVa would be to find out from WaBa the exact number of members in their jurisdiction.

That said, I doubt that arguments over WABA membership is really that important. The number of people who bike in Alex, utilizing on street bike lanes, is probably a good bit higher than the number of WaBa members.

Organizing is not easy, and takes time.

[Jim T]

Removing the double yellow line would slow traffic and increase passing clearances.

[dynaryder]

@Allen:14,500 people were at BtWD this year. Why does it seem improbable that WABA has 3k members in Alexandria?

[Jonathan Krall]

In Alexandria, WABA has about 3100 supporters/followers (people who sign up to get email and hear about events) and about 300 dues-paying members. I am thankful for every one of them.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Chris]

Jonathan, thanks for those figures. Do you know how that compares to Arlignton?